WarpBuild
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 9 ci runners by recommenders
Recommended as cheaper and faster GitHub Actions runners, including macOS, with an easy setup. Critics note it depends on GitHub's platform and pricing decisions.
Recommended as cheaper and faster GitHub Actions runners, including macOS, with an easy setup. Critics note it depends on GitHub's platform and pricing decisions.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cheaper than GitHub-hosted runners
“We're using WarpBuild and they are still cheaper per-minute, even with all the changes Github has made.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “Services like blacksmith and WarpBuild (I'm the founder) are still cheaper than GitHub hosted runners”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “We provide GHA runners that are much faster and about half the cost. This includes MacOS.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “GitHub Is Down” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub”
- Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Surprise Pay $1000”
Faster runners and shorter builds
“WarpBuild, on the other hand, was a breeze to setup and provided faster runners and lower prices.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “Literally cut my build times in half by changing 1 line in my workflow file to use the WB runner.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “We provide GHA runners that are much faster and about half the cost. This includes MacOS.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “GitHub Is Down” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
- Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
High quality, dependable service
“getting along fine with Actions + WarpBuild”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “GitHub Actions Is Slowly Killing Your Engineering Team” “WarpBuild still runs my deploys/iOS builds”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Our GitHub Actions bill kept climbing, so we moved CI to one box” “the service is high quality”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “GitHub Actions is the weakest link” - Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Ghostty is leaving GitHub”
Easy switch with one-line change
“WarpBuild, on the other hand, was a breeze to setup and provided faster runners and lower prices.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “Literally cut my build times in half by changing 1 line in my workflow file to use the WB runner.”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Depends on GitHub's platform and pricing
“They can turn this knob arbitrarily to put you out of business.”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions” “they are not your platform and they are not in the position to offer you a better service”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Pricing Changes for GitHub Actions”
Other ci runners people recommend
The four most recommended other ci runners, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blacksmith runners | 22 | 21 | 51% | 8 | — | — |
| WarpBuildThis page | 12 | 2 | 86% | 8 | — | Approved |
| GitHub Actions self-hosted runners | 9 | 25 | 26% | 6 | — | — |
| RunsOn | 8 | 3 | 73% | 8 | — | — |
| Namespace | 8 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
28 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“You can cache into your own s3 bucket, so you manage eviction policy”
“WarpBuild still runs my deploys/iOS builds”
“50% cheaper instead of 33%”
“Honourable mention to WarpBuild as well, who I used before them”
“We provide GHA runners that are much faster and about half the cost. This includes MacOS.”
“Thank You, great product.”
“we provide faster runners (also cheaper)”
“the service is high quality”
“We optimize for overall performance in real world jobs and have a broad selection of regions/OSes/arch available.”
“I recently had to (partially) switch actions to a paid solution”
“getting along fine with Actions + WarpBuild”
“The statement regarding the better option is as it stands today and does not account for all possible futures.”
“They can turn this knob arbitrarily to put you out of business.”
“performance and fast CI is important for productivity”
“very happy with the performance gain”
“we're still faster and cheaper even after the $0.002/min self hosting tax”
“Literally cut my build times in half by changing 1 line in my workflow file to use the WB runner.”
“with better performance and much lower price”
“they are not your platform and they are not in the position to offer you a better service”
“Self-hosting runners or using WarpBuild/blacksmith runners is still cheaper”
“the header in the menu says you have macOS Intel runners, but then you click through and it doesn't seem to be so?”
“Performance is the primary lever to pay less $0.002/min self hosting tax and we strive to provide the best performance runners.”
“We're using WarpBuild and they are still cheaper per-minute, even with all the changes Github has made.”
“Services like blacksmith and WarpBuild (I'm the founder) are still cheaper than GitHub hosted runners”
“Services like WarpBuild (I'm the founder) are still cheaper than GitHub hosted runners”
“WarpBuild, on the other hand, was a breeze to setup and provided faster runners and lower prices.”
“Our compute is still cheaper than using github hosted runners”
“which we've used for a couple years to keep our costs low”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.